Tawakkol Karman

Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Khalid Karman (Arabic: توكل عبد السلام خالد كرمان, romanized: Tawakkul 'Abd us-Salām Khālid Karmān; Turkish: Tevekkül Karman; born 7 February 1979) is a Yemeni journalist, politician, and human rights activist. She co-founded and leads 'Women Journalists Without Chains', a group established in 2005 to advocate for press freedom and human rights. She became the international public face of the 2011 Yemeni uprising that was part of the Arab Spring movement. She was often referred as the 'Iron Woman' and the 'Mother of the Revolution" in Yemen. She is a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work". She became the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize.

Karman gained prominence in Yemen after 2005 as a Yemeni journalist and an advocate for press freedom, particularly following the denial of a license for a mobile phone news service in 2007, after which she led protests. After May 2007, she organized weekly protests advocating for broader reforms in Yemen. In early 2011, she shifted the protests to align with the broader Arab Spring movement, inspired by the Tunisian revolution that overthrew the government of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. She was a vocal opponent who called for the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government.